It gives hope, it gives directions and promised security.”
–D.C. Adkisson (Redemption)
“…the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.”
“…the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.”
–Titus 1-2 (NKJV)
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When I was a kid I would wait, rather impatiently, for my Mom to come pick me up. Perhaps once a week she would come by and we would go to the Dairy Queen (malts were thirty cents) or maybe I would spend the night with her. She would tell me she was on her way from work. I would wait…and wait…and sometimes wait even longer. I’m sure glad we didn’t have cell phones in those days or I would have called her a dozen or more times, but no matter how long it took, she would eventually show up. I thought about those times upon reading the following from Romans.
“Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
–Romans 5:5, NKJV
Hope, according to Vine, is “favorable and confidence expectation. It has to do with the unseen and the future. It describes the happy anticipation of good…” Hope is not fantasy or wishful thinking; it is not as Barclay translates the verse, “hope does not prove an illusion.” What we hope for will come to pass. I might add here that hope is always linked with faith, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, NKJV) Harbuck puts it this way, “Now faith is the assurance of things we hope for and expect and an inner conviction of things not seen [though perceived as a present reality].”
If we read the first four verses of Romans 5 we see the development of character which produces hope. “Two men can meet the same situation. It can drive one of them to despair, and it can spur the other to triumphant action. To the one it can be the end of hope, to the other it can be a challenge to greatness.” (William Barclay) One man has become weak in his faith; he is a spiritual sluggard. The other meets the situation with “eyes aflame with hope.” (Barclay) Barclay adds to this, “The character which has endured the test always emerges in hope.”
It is important that we see hope and faith together, but also hope and endurance or patience. “Hope never disappoints…” (Harbuck) I am speaking of true hope, not wishful thinking, not false dreams, not illusions but true, honest to goodness hope that we have because of the love of God and the administering of that love by the Holy Spirit. That is one reason why positive thinking is humanistic. I am not downplaying the importance of being positive, but man’s hopes will fade. There is nothing for a foundation; the love of man can never be the surety of the hope for no matter how great the person is there is the danger of failure.
Barclay tells of human hope in the poem by Omar Khayyam in his thinking about hope:
“The Worldly Hope men set their hearts upon
Turns Ashes–or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face
Lighting a little Hour or two–is gone.”
Hope based upon man can come to pass or it can shatter. When hope shatters, I ask then what becomes of faith? As a child I hoped to look out the window to see my Mom’s car approach, When it arrived there was the proof of that hope. It was now a reality. But what if she didn’t follow through with her promise? What would happen to hope the next time? “When a man’s hope is in God, it cannot turn to dust and ashes. When a man’s hope is in God, it cannot be disappointed. When a man’s hope is in the love of God, it can never be an illusion, for God loves us with an everlasting love backed by an everlasting power.” (Barclay)
Let us not despair of hope. In this godless time in which we live we are to renounce ungodliness and the evil that we see in the world. We are to live godly, righteous lives, more so as “we wait for the Blessed Hope of the radiant Appearance of our Great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” (Titus 2:13, Harbuck). Now we wait, expectantly, for His coming. He promised and He will never disappoint.
—————————
When I was a kid I would wait, rather impatiently, for my Mom to come pick me up. Perhaps once a week she would come by and we would go to the Dairy Queen (malts were thirty cents) or maybe I would spend the night with her. She would tell me she was on her way from work. I would wait…and wait…and sometimes wait even longer. I’m sure glad we didn’t have cell phones in those days or I would have called her a dozen or more times, but no matter how long it took, she would eventually show up. I thought about those times upon reading the following from Romans.
“Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
–Romans 5:5, NKJV
Hope, according to Vine, is “favorable and confidence expectation. It has to do with the unseen and the future. It describes the happy anticipation of good…” Hope is not fantasy or wishful thinking; it is not as Barclay translates the verse, “hope does not prove an illusion.” What we hope for will come to pass. I might add here that hope is always linked with faith, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, NKJV) Harbuck puts it this way, “Now faith is the assurance of things we hope for and expect and an inner conviction of things not seen [though perceived as a present reality].”
If we read the first four verses of Romans 5 we see the development of character which produces hope. “Two men can meet the same situation. It can drive one of them to despair, and it can spur the other to triumphant action. To the one it can be the end of hope, to the other it can be a challenge to greatness.” (William Barclay) One man has become weak in his faith; he is a spiritual sluggard. The other meets the situation with “eyes aflame with hope.” (Barclay) Barclay adds to this, “The character which has endured the test always emerges in hope.”
It is important that we see hope and faith together, but also hope and endurance or patience. “Hope never disappoints…” (Harbuck) I am speaking of true hope, not wishful thinking, not false dreams, not illusions but true, honest to goodness hope that we have because of the love of God and the administering of that love by the Holy Spirit. That is one reason why positive thinking is humanistic. I am not downplaying the importance of being positive, but man’s hopes will fade. There is nothing for a foundation; the love of man can never be the surety of the hope for no matter how great the person is there is the danger of failure.
Barclay tells of human hope in the poem by Omar Khayyam in his thinking about hope:
“The Worldly Hope men set their hearts upon
Turns Ashes–or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face
Lighting a little Hour or two–is gone.”
Hope based upon man can come to pass or it can shatter. When hope shatters, I ask then what becomes of faith? As a child I hoped to look out the window to see my Mom’s car approach, When it arrived there was the proof of that hope. It was now a reality. But what if she didn’t follow through with her promise? What would happen to hope the next time? “When a man’s hope is in God, it cannot turn to dust and ashes. When a man’s hope is in God, it cannot be disappointed. When a man’s hope is in the love of God, it can never be an illusion, for God loves us with an everlasting love backed by an everlasting power.” (Barclay)
Let us not despair of hope. In this godless time in which we live we are to renounce ungodliness and the evil that we see in the world. We are to live godly, righteous lives, more so as “we wait for the Blessed Hope of the radiant Appearance of our Great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” (Titus 2:13, Harbuck). Now we wait, expectantly, for His coming. He promised and He will never disappoint.